Slush update from Jolla CEO

It’s been busy and productive times with Sailfish OS in the past months and it is time for an update from the cockpit. It is also an exciting week here in Helsinki, Finland as we have Europe’s biggest tech conference Slush 2017 once again going on and we’re looking forward to see and discuss a lot of new innovations during these two days.

Sailfish X – next chapters

The Sailfish X has been a fun and delightful program for the whole Jolla team and it truly has sparked a lot of energy within the Sailfish community. It is also a very significant milestone for the Sailfish OS journey since it is the first time we have made the OS itself available for direct purchase and download. We can already see how well this can scale, and make us react better and faster to the customer needs.

Sailfish X has been now out for six weeks and the reception has been really good. We have received plenty of feedback, based on which we have improved the availability, the installation process and tools, and delivered one full software release with several significant fixes and improvements.

Based on the good experience and reception, we’re looking forward to expanding the program. There will be new countries, which we target to open very soon, and we’ve been working on supporting new Sony Xperia hardware variants and to deliver an up-to-date hardware portfolio for 2018.

Blockchain community phone program

Sailfish X is also a very powerful development platform for various purposes, a device with open software and tools, that can be effectively used to innovate and develop new and exciting stuff without the limitations of legacy platforms. One of the most vibrant emerging technology communities around the world is the blockchain app developers.

When we started the Jolla project, it was the community who made Jolla possible. Community made the applications and you were also the first ones to purchase Jolla phones. So far Jolla has not had enough ways to fuel the community and also reward them for their valuable contributions.

That’s why today here at Slush 2017 we’re excited to announce a blockchain community phone program together with Zipper Global Ltd., a blockchain specialised company founded by Jolla’s co-founder Antti Saarnio, to develop the world’s first Blockchain solutions on top of an open mobile operating system. The program will be utilising Sailfish X as a development platform, and targets to offer the world’s best open development environment for the rapidly expanding developer community of blockchain application developers.

In this collaboration Jolla will be offering the Sailfish X as a core development environment, and Zipper develops and offers the blockchain platform for it. The platform will have its own currency ZIP to fuel the community and platform development. We are also preparing a tailored community program for developing new blockchain related applications and features to Sailfish OS, and further, our intention is to use ZIP tokens to spur community growth and contributions. We will come back to this program later on. Stay tuned!

You can learn more at Zipper’s website and also check out the Zipper platform video.

Latin Americas

As many of you noticed we officially launched Sailfish OS for the Latin American markets together with our licensing partner, Jala Group. After months of development since Mobile World Congress 2017, we were very happy to take further steps and see this partnership delivering its first products.

Let me talk a little about our licensing strategy and the importance of this launch and partnership together with Jala. As we have been talking earlier, we have a regional licensing strategy to expand Sailfish OS in collaboration together with our licensing partners. Prior to this launch for the Latin American markets, we have earlier started partner operations in Russia and in China.

Jala Group is a sizable, 16-year-old software house based in Bolivia in the very middle of Latin American markets, and with more than 650 highly talented engineers delivering software solutions for various markets and customers around the world. With their vast experience on serving demanding international customers, the capacity they have, and the vision and passion of their team, they are now starting to conquer the Latin American markets together with Jolla and Sailfish OS. This is a perfect example of a business partner that Sailfish OS needs in order to proceed and succeed further: a partner with skillful engineers, right level of capacity to engage effectively with our team, the pioneering passion just like you, our community has, and the perseverance to make it for the long run.

I welcome you to view this interview by Mr. Jorge Lopez, Founder and CEO of Jala Group, explaining their reasons to partner with Jolla and start to build technology independence to Latin American markets with Sailfish OS. Mr. Lopez is also visiting the Slush conference together with us here.

Jala Accione smartphones for the Russian markets

Following up the launch in Latin American markets, Jala Group also announced in Moscow the Accione Sailfish smartphones available for the Russian market in collaboration together with Open Mobile Platform LLC, Jolla’s licensing partner for the Russian market. The first products are expected to be available during Q1/2018.

Jala ACCIONE launch in Moscow

ACCIONE powered by Jala

Presenting ACCIONE P smartphone

Further, in collaboration with Jala Group , we follow closely the progress in Russian market and are looking for partners in the general European markets to introduce Jala Accione devices further in Europe. We will separately announce once this comes feasible.

Lots of Sailfish action is going on as you can see, let’s keep growing it together.

All in all very exciting news. Only exception: I’m a bit wary about this whole blockchain thing with Zipper. It seems to me that Jolla ATM is not in the position to join such a risky endeavour. I’d rather see you guys concentrate on the still immature OS and use proven technology to the left and right. For example a recent chat on IRC left us with the impression that Zipper is supposed to be the solution for payed apps in the Jolla store. I cannot imagine people buing into this system for a €0,99-app when they’re used to credit cards, Paypal, operator billing and other things they are used to.

…and on the other side we complain that Jolla should be more ahead of time. If the wave is there (Android/iOS) it’s too late to small Jolla company
I see good opportunities in starting early with Blockchain.

You are not alone in that area, but with everything that we have been learning over the past years, this is actually the right way to go for the future. Zipper, being a separate company than Jolla and having their own resources, have been studying this matter for a rather long time and are moving forward with all the calculations in place. Let’s wait and see how this collaboration goes forward and takes place.

@James: Yes, let’s wait and see. TBH, I skipped the “wait” part and fast forwarded (is that a verb?) to “see”, trying to get myself acquainted with the technology. It’s really exciting if it lives up to only half of its promises. It’s just that this “if” won’t go away any time soon and I’ve seen oh so many revolutionary technologies fail. It’s good that Jolla kind of “outsourced” the risks involved to Zipper… At least that’s how I read it.

In order to improve the quality of apps and functions, the possibility to pay for apps would be a good idea. But how? Paypal is certainly not my favorite system, nor is Flattr, because I don’t want to be tied to monthly subscriptions.
The blockchain technology is disruptive indeed, but it has disadvantages too. So I am not sure if this is the solution for the future.
And I agree with Ossi1967 that Jolla’s focus predominantly should lay in improving the OS itself.

We at Jolla are all pro-open source. Open sourcing Sailfish OS is not as easy as it sounds. It has been on the agenda for a long time but has been pushed back as we need to allocate our very limited resources to our current projects. Open sourcing takes a lot out of our resources as there is so much involved with that process from documentation, maintenance, legal issues, marcomms, engineering and much more. It will come at some point, but there is not promised agenda for it yet.

That’s a really poor excuse. open-sourcing is quite easy, add the open source licence as a header and post the code. There’s really not a lot more too it. Sure, documentation is useful but certainly not essrntial for open source…

Your email address is deleted from that post. I forwarded your request. That is a rather busy inbox and some emails can sometimes go unnoticed. We will get back to you as soon as we have an answer for your proposal. Thanks!

Well, I disagree with you. You could look at other bigger corporations and how they tend to open their source codes and how much time it takes for them. Then you can consider our small size and understand that it is not an “excuse” whatsoever.

For now, we have had one concept regarding wearables to show it is possible. If any of our partners would like to participate in the wearable market, there then will be a Sailfish OS powered wearable in the market. So far we can’t comment if there has or hasn’t been contributions or future plans. Stay tuned!

With the launch of Sailfish X it seemed for a moment as if Jolla was finally getting its act together, but with this token scam you finally disqualified yourself in the community for good. This is doing an even bigger harm to your reputation than the tablet disaster. At least there’s no doubt about the intentions of the Jolla founders anymore.

@Shakatus: If you ordered tablets, you should have received 100% of your money long ago. Contact them in case anything went wrong with their database. If they don’t pay you, sue them immediately! It’s already long ago and such claims aren’t valid forever.

Thanks for this lesson! Nevertheless as a customer I’m free to decide with whom I spend my money. Me and thousand other won’t buy a Jolla-product, until that tablet-thing is solved. Not a good position for any Jolla-offer.

I was pretty sure that I replied to this at some point! But I can’t see it either, so I might have written a reply and left my office for a minute, then I forgot about submitting the comment and closed the page. Sorry about that!

See, Sailfish X project isn’t going to be “complete”. It’s like a project car. It’s never done! You work on it, add new features, find new bugs, fix those bugs, add more new features, and the list goes on. So Sailfish X, or Sailfish OS, is always a WIP.

About other open devices products, we will update you as soon as it is clearer for us.

Sami “we’ve been working on supporting new Sony Xperia hardware variants and to deliver an up-to-date hardware portfolio for 2018″

I’d like further info on this!!!

As it stands, I’m simply not willing to make the move back over to Jolla (my j1 is now dead) and have no appetite to restore it back to its former glory. Im happy to stay on a “lesser” device for no more reason other than that its stable. Im not willing to spend any money unless I know that the software is a finished product.

I’m happy to consider purchasing a Sony device but not one that is now essentially reached the end of its life cycle so Xperia X is off the table for me.

Can someone at Jolla at the very minimum confirm what other devices from the Sony range are in scope of the “up-to-date hardware portfolio for 2018″????

Being onboard since the Jolly/Sailfish adventure started my hardware (Jolla 1) is now reaching its end of life span and unfortunately
there is still no up-to-date hardware available: the supported Sony Xperia X dates from early 2016 and is now even hard to get in my country. I eagerly hoped to be able to flash one of the current Sony Xperia hardware variants, but I get only your vague announcement “to deliver an up-to-date hardware portfolio for 2018″. Therefore the purchased Sailfish X package remains unused somewhere in a folder and as you may know: it is much harder to get back a former customer than to keep one…sorry!

What exactly is your problem with the Xperia X other than availability. You talk about up to date hardware. What hardware is missing from the Xperia X.

To me the really important factor is having the OS on a well specced device. I’d consider the Xperia to be well specced.

I don’t see the problem. I you want to have the latest phone to flash around your friends then that’s another story and right now doesn’t involve using Sailfish. You need an iOS or Android device for that.

I’m happy enough with the Xperia and eagerly await the support of the the various bits of hardware that are not yet supported or fully supported.